COVER STORY
“None of us grow food so we can throw it away.” Orange County Produce’s Founding Member A.G. Kawamura on fighting food waste.
By Kara Timmins, Communications Manager T here are many reasons a person becomes a farmer. But there is a throughline to their motivation: whatever farmers grow, they don’t want to waste it. The issue of food waste is one that is growing in importance in the mind of the consumer. This goes beyond the “clean your plate!” orders from mothers throughout time to include an increased desire from the public to know about how much food goes from the field into productive use. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food waste is estimated to impact between 30–40 percent of the food supply. As such, preventing food waste is a “we challenge” in that it requires everyone’s participation—from consumers to growers. For Western Growers members, it means they often think of the best way to use as much of their product as they can. For A.G. Kawamura, owner/partner of Orange County Produce, utilizing all the produce he grows has been a point of pride for a long time. “None of us grow food so that we can throw it away,” Kawamura said. “There’s been some wonderful opportunities that aligns itself with our processing industry that can take a strawberry that’s not that great looking and turn it into delicious juice—cut it up and put it into a mash that’s ready for a smoothie.” Buyers, on behalf of their consumers, are seeking the best looking, most-uniform produce available to stock their shelves, but that’s not always what comes out of the ground or off a tree limb. These measurements of visual or size value doesn’t correlate to a less healthful or tasty product. While this concept of using the produce that doesn’t fit the mold may be new to some consumers, it isn’t new to growers. For many, they have been finding a place for these products that “have a face for
radio” in frozen dinners, produce delivery services or chopped bagged lettuce. Bolthouse has a line of juices made from their perfectly imperfect carrots, which is certified through the Upcycled Food initiative to help consumers easily identify it on the shelves. On top of finding ways to get food into stores and homes, there are also pathways to get parts of produce that are deemed not fit for human consumption as animal feed. Parts like leafy carrot tops or woody asparagus bottoms may find themselves on a cow’s menu. Another avenue for preventing food waste is getting it to people who need food support. SunTerra’s Steve Brazeel, motivated to action amid the Covid-19
pandemic, started Project Food Box. Project Food Box moved to solve two problems by creating a bridge: allow farmers to get their products out of the field and get it to the people who need it the most. That bridge required strategic planning, hard work and industry insight, and it is still going strong to deliver this much-needed produce to food banks. But Brazeel didn’t set out without guidance, and one of the people who shared insight with him at the outset was Kawamura. When it comes to connecting people with their food, Kawamura and Orange Country Produce put resolving hunger and nutrition problems in their community as a key feature of the company’s philosophy.
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MARCH | APRIL 2024
Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com
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